Long-term changes in Phytoplankton Lifeforms and SST at the Lorn Pelagic Observatory, v.1

This note reports methods used in 2019 to obtain and process phytoplankton
data from the Lorn Pelagic Observatory ( 56.5N, 5.5W) for comparison with long-term changes in Sea-Surface Temperature (SST) according to ICOADS. The methods, and some associated issues are illustrated with data for Diatoms and the dino agellate genus Cer-atium. Analyses were also made for `Reliably Identied Phototrophic Armoured Dinoflagellates' (RIPAD) and (oligotrich) Ciliates. Therehas been a signicant upwards trend in SST and a signicant downwards
trend in Diatoms cells/L, over the period from 1970 to 2015 (with no data 1982-1999) and these trends are correlated (table 3). There were no long-term temporal trends in the abundances of the other groups, but RPIDAL and Ciliates cells/L were signicantly inversely correlated with SST. The work is a contribution to the ICEGRAPH project.